0:00:20 > 0:00:26'My greatest loves are my steamroller, which I've run for over 30 years,
0:00:26 > 0:00:30'and my traction engine, which I've had just as long.
0:00:30 > 0:00:35'It's funny that it takes so much time to restore them.
0:00:35 > 0:00:40'Engines like this weren't around for very long.
0:00:40 > 0:00:47'It was only from the middle of the 19th century until the First World War that they were on the roads.
0:00:47 > 0:00:52'By the 1920's steam was losing out to diesel and petrol engines.
0:00:52 > 0:01:00'By the 1940s, steam vehicles were heading for the scrapyard in their thousands.
0:01:00 > 0:01:06'Luckily, some were saved by men who like these magnificent machines.
0:01:06 > 0:01:08'I'm going to meet some of them
0:01:08 > 0:01:15'and look back to a time when our roads were full of engines like this one.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18STEAM ENGINE TOOTS
0:01:18 > 0:01:23'I bought a steamroller 30 years ago. I was ripped off - I paid £175!
0:01:23 > 0:01:29'You could buy a steamroller at that time for about £60.'
0:01:29 > 0:01:34Time went by and this steamroller was an incredible wreck.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37'The back wheels leaned in on each other.
0:01:37 > 0:01:43'Going over manhole covers, the wheel banged on the flywheel's rim.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48'It made the most unbelievable noise you could ever imagine.
0:01:48 > 0:01:53'Painstakingly, I slowly but surely made a new one.
0:01:53 > 0:02:00'When people think about steam vehicles on the road, they think about heavy ones like this.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04'But the earliest vehicles to travel on the roads weren't like this.
0:02:04 > 0:02:13'This is a replica that was built by Cornish engineer and inventor Richard Trevithick in 1803.
0:02:13 > 0:02:19'It's quite light and elegant. The first steam vehicles that were built
0:02:19 > 0:02:24'continued like this for some time. By the 1820s,'
0:02:24 > 0:02:28all sorts of people were trying to manufacture steam carriages.
0:02:28 > 0:02:33Not for their own private use, but to transport the paying public.
0:02:33 > 0:02:39A gentleman called Walter Hancock seemed to do quite well - he built quite a few.
0:02:39 > 0:02:45This is a replica of one of his, The Enterprise, which he built in 1833.
0:02:45 > 0:02:51Tom Brogdin, who helped recreate it, is here to tell us about it.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54- Isn't that right, Tom?- Yes.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57Walter Hancock was the best of these early pioneers.
0:02:57 > 0:03:03He built magnificent machines and this was the middle of the range.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07- It's a powerful beast. - You said it could do nearly 20mph.
0:03:07 > 0:03:15He did for the roads what the Stevensons did with the railways with Rocket.
0:03:15 > 0:03:21- He had a bit of bother. He ended up with an explosion. - Yes, one of his boilers exploded.
0:03:21 > 0:03:25But his boilers weren't the best part of it.
0:03:25 > 0:03:31They were like seven modern central heating radiators with bolts through.
0:03:31 > 0:03:37- With a fire underneath! - Yes. As you can imagine, the radiators soon burst.- Oh, aye.
0:03:37 > 0:03:44- Even one in your house frightens me! - That was a weakness of Hancock. - Silence would be very important
0:03:44 > 0:03:50to gain, sort of, the friendship of the authorities
0:03:50 > 0:03:53because of not frightening horses.
0:03:53 > 0:04:00He said his machines were so quiet that horses could have looked in the cab to see how they worked!
0:04:00 > 0:04:07And the stagecoach men were jealous of him and they tried sabotage by rolling big rocks in his way.
0:04:07 > 0:04:12- That finished him off, didn't it? - He ran out of money as well.
0:04:18 > 0:04:24- Now then. Explain all of this. - There we have a steering wheel. - Yeah, yeah.
0:04:24 > 0:04:29This lets you turn the steering wheel.
0:04:29 > 0:04:34Three people operated it. One here, one in the middle, one on the back.
0:04:34 > 0:04:39I'll have a quick sail around the car park. All right, mate.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42STEAM ENGINE HISSES
0:05:23 > 0:05:29'Steam carriages like this proved to be an efficient form of transport.
0:05:29 > 0:05:36'But they were let down by the state of the roads and never really took off like railways did.
0:05:36 > 0:05:43'We got the traction engine instead. In the second half of the 19th and early part of the 20th century
0:05:43 > 0:05:50'big engines like this were a common sight on the roads and in the countryside.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54'Road locomotives provided the heavy haulage of the day.
0:05:54 > 0:05:59'Steamrollers were developed to build the roads they ran on.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03'In the fields, traction engines were used for ploughing.
0:06:03 > 0:06:10'Showman's engines hauled fairground rides and provided the power to operate them.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14'Engines could weigh up to 20 tonnes.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18'Basically, they were similar to railway locomotives.'
0:06:18 > 0:06:23This bit on a locomotive is the main bit - the firebox.
0:06:23 > 0:06:30This plate here is known as the throat plate. It joins the square bit up to the round bit.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33This is the boiler barrel.
0:06:33 > 0:06:40Inside it there are 32 two-inch diameter tubes that come from holes in the top of the firebox
0:06:40 > 0:06:48through to the front tube plate, which is hiding behind here, where they all poke out.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52That is a void called the smokebox.
0:06:52 > 0:06:59The combustion products come from the firebox, through to the front, and are blasted up the chimney.
0:06:59 > 0:07:06It's then turned into the base of the chimney, forming a vacuum inside.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10The rear end - this is the back axle.
0:07:10 > 0:07:15The reason for this... moon-shaped hole here,
0:07:15 > 0:07:21is the amount of play that the axle has on the springing gear.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25This brass tap is important.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29You get your water out of it for making your tea!
0:07:29 > 0:07:35It's handy for washing your hands - depends where you fill it up.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38I wouldn't recommend brewing tea.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42'The earliest ones were nothing like as big as this.
0:07:42 > 0:07:47'The first ones couldn't get around under their own steam.'
0:07:47 > 0:07:53When it was realised that some sort of power had to be introduced into agriculture,
0:07:53 > 0:07:58the steam locomotives on the railway were already well developed
0:07:58 > 0:08:02and the locomotive boiler was the obvious thing to pick.
0:08:02 > 0:08:08They put a wheel on each corner and called it a portable.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11It was a very handy machine.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15You could take it from farm to farm and work the threshing machine,
0:08:15 > 0:08:23you could put it up to great saws, you could make it work pumps in industrial areas,
0:08:23 > 0:08:25pumping building works out.
0:08:25 > 0:08:30They even made some called semi-portable,
0:08:30 > 0:08:33a portable with no wheels.
0:08:33 > 0:08:40There's a lovely example here built by a Mr Robey of Lincoln. It's a beautiful piece.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45At the Hollycombe Steam Collection
0:08:45 > 0:08:49you can see steam engines and traction engines
0:08:49 > 0:08:54that were used in agriculture up to the middle of the last century.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58'Even after traction engines were established,
0:08:58 > 0:09:06'there was still a market for the semi-portable like this - you wouldn't believe it, really.
0:09:06 > 0:09:11'It's a portable engine. It's bolted on to the top of the boiler.
0:09:11 > 0:09:18'The richer farmers could have a static engine room driving all this tackle.
0:09:18 > 0:09:26'The less affluent farmer had the threshing man come in with his threshing box and traction engine.'
0:09:31 > 0:09:37This one was built by Robey's of Lincoln in 1915.
0:09:37 > 0:09:42It drives a thing called a rack saw with a five-foot blade on it.
0:09:42 > 0:09:50It saws great trees into planks of wood for making posts and rail fences and that type of stuff.
0:09:53 > 0:10:00The semi-portable was good for running a sawmill, where the wood could be brought to the engine.
0:10:00 > 0:10:07But they also needed engines that could get round the farm under their own steam.
0:10:12 > 0:10:18By far the largest traction engines were the ones that were built for ploughing,
0:10:18 > 0:10:21like these two behind me.
0:10:21 > 0:10:28In the 1840s, when they first had the idea for using steam power for ploughing,
0:10:28 > 0:10:34they had various different systems that weren't a great deal better than horses.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37But a Leeds man called John Fowler
0:10:37 > 0:10:43had an idea to put the winding drum under the boiler and have two engines.
0:10:43 > 0:10:48Then he put a lot of thought into the plough.
0:10:48 > 0:10:56When the thing was going across the field, you dumped the plough into the ground at the back.
0:10:56 > 0:11:00When it got to the other end you lifted it up,
0:11:00 > 0:11:05and the other engine pulled it back, which was a good way of doing it.
0:11:05 > 0:11:10If you go to Lincolnshire and you see the fields all lovely and flat,
0:11:10 > 0:11:15I think Mr Fowler was responsible for that.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18Very beautiful and level.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22STEAM ENGINE HISSES
0:11:42 > 0:11:49A road locomotive was similar to an agricultural traction engine but it had a few refinements.
0:11:49 > 0:11:55Number one, it always had a few more horsepowers in power.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59It had three gears - most of them had three gears.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03It had an extra tank under the boiler for going further.
0:12:03 > 0:12:09Here's a road locomotive, pulling two of its brothers that haven't been finished off
0:12:09 > 0:12:13and a threshing box at the back.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17The engine itself is a very handsome piece of tackle.
0:12:17 > 0:12:22It has a beautiful finish. Made by Fodens,
0:12:22 > 0:12:27who are still making modern wagons to this very day.
0:12:27 > 0:12:32'Road locomotives were in use for around 80 years.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35'There's no finer sight than engines steamed up.
0:12:35 > 0:12:43'This is the Strumpshaw Steam Museum in Norfolk. The owner is Mr James Key.'
0:12:43 > 0:12:50- You'll have to tell me how it all started.- My father was deprived - he didn't have a train set,
0:12:50 > 0:12:54that's how it all started off.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57When combines first came out,
0:12:57 > 0:13:03they combined the barley but the wheat was stacked and they'd buy an engine drum every year.
0:13:03 > 0:13:10- A different one?- Yes. They'd buy the complete set for about £100, ready to work.
0:13:10 > 0:13:16- Then at the end they'd scrap them. - Unbelievable!
0:13:16 > 0:13:24Then one of the men on the farm said we should paint one up and that's how it all started it up.
0:13:24 > 0:13:31- How many engines have you got now? - With traction engines, rollers etc I think we've got about 30.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34I haven't counted exactly.
0:13:34 > 0:13:41It's very strange how it's all gone. 30 years ago I paid £170 for my steamroller.
0:13:41 > 0:13:47Now, they're asking £20,000 for a clapped-out steamroller.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50You're lucky to get one for £20,000.
0:13:50 > 0:13:58I had to buy that from my father's - I don't know what you call - a lady friend, or whatever.
0:13:58 > 0:14:02There's a lot of that goes on!
0:14:02 > 0:14:07I had to pay £35,000 for that - that really hurt.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10- It's a rare machine.- It's unique.
0:14:10 > 0:14:15It's like driving a minicab. It's a lovely little thing to drive.
0:14:15 > 0:14:22- Can I have a go on that one? - Certainly.- The first engine I had a ride on was a Garrett!
0:14:22 > 0:14:28It's the only one you can have a ride on because it's unique.
0:14:28 > 0:14:35'Traction engines made a difference to farm work. The engineer could drive it to where it was needed,
0:14:35 > 0:14:38'for things like hauling big trees
0:14:38 > 0:14:42'and for threshing corn or sawing timber.'
0:14:48 > 0:14:49Aye.
0:14:49 > 0:14:57'Trees that had been felled had to be loaded on to carts for transport to sawmills.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01'More work could be done in a day than ever before.
0:15:01 > 0:15:06'It's only because of the time and money and sheer hard graft
0:15:06 > 0:15:11'put in by dedicated enthusiasts,
0:15:11 > 0:15:15'like those who brought engines today, that we can still see them.'
0:15:15 > 0:15:18Aye.
0:15:18 > 0:15:24It's really nice to see, today, them pulling lumps of wood about
0:15:24 > 0:15:29and look at engines doing what they were supposed to do.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33I've got a friend with the same one as this.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37- Yeah. Yeah. But what year's this? - 1919.
0:15:37 > 0:15:42- Have you had it long? - Since last July.- How you finding it?
0:15:42 > 0:15:48We've had a go on other engines with friends before. I've been involved in other clubs.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52- Doing your apprenticeship.- Yes.
0:15:52 > 0:15:59- You've got the wife and kids with you.- They all take part and all have their bit to do with it.
0:15:59 > 0:16:06'It really does take a lot of dedication to get them back in their original condition.'
0:16:06 > 0:16:12My traction engine is all coming together like a Meccano set,
0:16:12 > 0:16:17after about 27 years of bitter struggle and mistakes.
0:16:17 > 0:16:22We're nearly there. It's pretty self-explanatory.
0:16:22 > 0:16:30The round bit underneath is the boiler, and the bit with the brass on at the end is the cylinder block.
0:16:30 > 0:16:37This is the brake, which acts on the inside of the rims of the back wheels, like disc brakes.
0:16:37 > 0:16:43This is like the equivalent to a gearbox on a car.
0:16:43 > 0:16:49That's it. That's in bottom gear. It's all such a good fit.
0:16:49 > 0:16:54This bit is the special traction engine gauge.
0:16:54 > 0:17:00The company sent me the pamphlet with the original price - 17 and sixpence.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03Something like that... Unbelievable!
0:17:03 > 0:17:06Now for the steamrollers.
0:17:06 > 0:17:13The first one was built in 1867. Basically, it was a variation on the traction engine.
0:17:13 > 0:17:20You got a traction engine and put two conical-shaped rollers instead of front wheels on it
0:17:20 > 0:17:24with a central pivot.
0:17:24 > 0:17:32But the conical-shaped rollers had a sliding effect so they developed a pair of forks and two rollers
0:17:32 > 0:17:37for the differential movement on a dead axle through the bottom.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41In the 1930s, they stopped making steamrollers.
0:17:41 > 0:17:47The steamrollers that they made in the '30s lasted up to the '60s - they were so good.
0:17:47 > 0:17:53Today, when you're on the motorway and the kids say, "Steamroller."
0:17:53 > 0:17:58It's a dieselroller but they're still called steamrollers.
0:17:58 > 0:18:04'A steamroller is hard to handle and they can be quite dangerous,
0:18:04 > 0:18:08'as I found out to my cost.
0:18:08 > 0:18:13'I had a job dismantling some Victorian chimney stacks.'
0:18:13 > 0:18:18The plan was to lower the stones off the roof of the building,
0:18:18 > 0:18:22and bring them home with the steamroller.
0:18:22 > 0:18:29'I got a call from a restaurant which is situated on top of a mountain outside of Bolton.
0:18:29 > 0:18:35'The man said, "You've got these stones with holes in. How much will you sell us a wagon for?"
0:18:35 > 0:18:38'I said, "£80." He said, "Good."
0:18:38 > 0:18:43'Then I thought, "How you going to get up the mountain?"'
0:18:43 > 0:18:48It was autumn. The leaves were coming down. It was terrible.
0:18:48 > 0:18:54'We set off, full of fear. We came to the bottom of the first big hill
0:18:54 > 0:18:59'and it went, "Chuff, chuff, chuff." Right up the hill. No trouble.
0:18:59 > 0:19:04'It took us about an hour to unload the stones.
0:19:04 > 0:19:11'We're coming down the hill - all traction engines and steamrollers have a design fault.'
0:19:11 > 0:19:16There's no brakes. 'Half way down, we're going fast.
0:19:16 > 0:19:20'We put the engine in reverse, the wheels are going backwards
0:19:20 > 0:19:23'but we're accelerating down.
0:19:23 > 0:19:29'The man from the restaurant is still at the back. When he saw things weren't going to plan
0:19:29 > 0:19:34'he bid us good day and jumped off over the wall into the field.'
0:19:36 > 0:19:39- Ha! Ha! Ha!- Hooray!
0:19:39 > 0:19:43'I might be laughing now but 20 years ago'
0:19:43 > 0:19:49I come down this hill and the road was only half as wide, it was a one-way street,
0:19:49 > 0:19:57being pushed by a three-and-a-half tonne trailer and the steamroller wheels weren't even going round.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00It was like a big sledge.
0:20:00 > 0:20:08When we reached this spot, we were doing 40mph, which is incredible for a steamroller.
0:20:08 > 0:20:13I had to do something - we'd never have got round a 45-degree bend.
0:20:13 > 0:20:21Over there is about a 15-foot drop into the back of an hospital.
0:20:21 > 0:20:29I had visions of dead old ladies, twisted bedsteads and maybe an explosion and a lot of steam.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33Then I saw that pillar and I said, "Aim for the pillar."
0:20:33 > 0:20:38We hit the pillar but the engine took off up into the sky.
0:20:38 > 0:20:46The back wheels were on top of the stump of the pillar - it was a lot thicker and wider.
0:20:46 > 0:20:52It's definitely been rebuilt as it's not damaged.
0:20:52 > 0:20:58The rear wheels were on top of the pillar and the boiler dug a hole in the road about there.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00About 18 inches deep.
0:21:00 > 0:21:07'I'd just wrecked something that it took me 20 years to make go.
0:21:07 > 0:21:13'Anyway, I managed to get it fixed, so there weren't too much of a problem.
0:21:13 > 0:21:19'The thing was steamrollers weren't really designed for road haulage.
0:21:19 > 0:21:25'If my traction engine had been finished I wouldn't have had any problems.
0:21:25 > 0:21:31'Back at Hollycombe, you can see another type of engine in action.
0:21:31 > 0:21:38'As well as providing power for agriculture and haulage, it found its way onto the fairground'
0:21:38 > 0:21:43to power fairground rides and generate electricity.
0:21:43 > 0:21:49One of the interesting things about the showman's engines were all the embellishments -
0:21:49 > 0:21:51the stars and the candy floss.
0:21:51 > 0:21:57Most important was the dynamo on the front to generate electricity
0:21:57 > 0:22:00and drive the roundabouts.
0:22:00 > 0:22:05This wonderful ride was called the Set Of Golden Gallopers.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09Obviously, there are horses and they're galloping.
0:22:09 > 0:22:14Steam was first introduced into the fairground in the 1870s.
0:22:14 > 0:22:22Really, it was Frederick Savage in King's Lynn, coming from agricultural beginnings,
0:22:22 > 0:22:25who started to make roundabouts.
0:22:25 > 0:22:32Eventually, with the little engine in the middle, which was called the centre engine.
0:22:32 > 0:22:36The whole roundabout is built round that engine.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39They went from strength to strength.
0:22:39 > 0:22:45They made all sorts of wonderful rides, all powered by steam.
0:22:45 > 0:22:50FAIRGROUND ORGAN PLAYS "Tea For Two"
0:22:58 > 0:23:03When you think most people only had oil lamps in their houses,
0:23:03 > 0:23:10and electricity was a wonderful thing in itself, when these fellows came to the village
0:23:10 > 0:23:15it was quite something to see, all these lights glowing away.
0:23:22 > 0:23:27'I couldn't ride on that one while it drove the roundabouts.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31'But they had one that I WAS able to have a go on.'
0:23:31 > 0:23:36One of the first rides I had on a traction engine was on one of these.
0:23:36 > 0:23:41I'll ask the driver if I can steer it. I think he'll let me.
0:23:41 > 0:23:46- Is that all right, Chris?- Yes. - Right, mate.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49Right.
0:23:49 > 0:23:56'They made these engines even more and more beautiful, and bigger and more grander,
0:23:56 > 0:24:01'and the last that were ever made were made in the 1930s.
0:24:01 > 0:24:08'All the old, ex-army wagons, even after the last war in 1945,
0:24:08 > 0:24:13'there were American haulage wagons that pulled tank transporters.
0:24:13 > 0:24:19'The fairground men used them and made the showman's engine obsolete.'
0:24:19 > 0:24:26You can't really see a lot driving one of these, can you? Yeah.
0:24:26 > 0:24:32- In the olden days everyone got out of the way, didn't they? - That's right.
0:24:32 > 0:24:38By 1940, the scrap yards were full of derelict showman's engines,
0:24:38 > 0:24:40in very sad, sad condition.
0:24:40 > 0:24:46You could get one for a few hundred quid. Now it's £330,000 apiece!
0:24:46 > 0:24:52I think some of them fairground men wish they'd kept them somewhere.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56Thank you for the ride. I'll see you later on.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59- OK, cheers!- See you, mate.
0:24:59 > 0:25:04You can see that when these things were made there weren't many cars.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07They were basically king of the road.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11If anybody saw one coming, they got out of the way!
0:25:11 > 0:25:15Here at Strumpshaw they've got a fine collection.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18Most of them will run along the road.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22This thing here is like the latest thing in modern technology
0:25:22 > 0:25:25in steam wagons.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28It's a Foden 6 ton Overtype steam wagon,
0:25:28 > 0:25:33and I think the driver's going to let me have a go in it.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36Hiya, Pip, how are you doing, mate?
0:25:36 > 0:25:39- How are you?- All right.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42Having an enjoyable day.
0:25:42 > 0:25:44Very good!
0:25:44 > 0:25:46Take a seat.
0:25:46 > 0:25:50- So the basic bits - that's the reversing lever...- Yep.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54And this of course is the regulator.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58This is the steering wheel, and I reckon that must be the handbrake.
0:25:58 > 0:26:03- There's a foot brake on this one. - How many gears?- Three.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08We have three gears. I think really we'll start off in bottom gear.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11- We'll try for a bottom one.- Yeah!
0:26:13 > 0:26:15What sort of speed does it do?
0:26:15 > 0:26:18ENGINE JUDDERS NOISILY
0:26:18 > 0:26:21You can get up to about 18 or 19mph.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26Is the foot brake very efficient?
0:26:26 > 0:26:29Er, not bad, yeah!
0:26:30 > 0:26:35These steam wagons were developed to a very high degree,
0:26:35 > 0:26:39and by 1936 or round about then, they were brilliant.
0:26:39 > 0:26:44They made the diesel wagons and the early petrol wagons puny looking.
0:26:44 > 0:26:51These steam wagons would do 40mph with a trailer full of cloth rolls.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54Big rolls of cloth are really heavy.
0:26:54 > 0:26:59They'd come down Manchester Road like an express train
0:26:59 > 0:27:04with the safety valves blowing out and the driver hanging out the cab,
0:27:04 > 0:27:08all black, cos there was a strange way of putting coal on.
0:27:08 > 0:27:13It's like a dustbin, the boiler, with a lid on top.
0:27:13 > 0:27:18When you got the lid off, the heat and muck came out in your face,
0:27:18 > 0:27:21and they still beat the wotsit off a petrol engine!
0:27:21 > 0:27:25Then the men who sold the oil got a bit upset,
0:27:25 > 0:27:28and they altered the Road Traffic Act
0:27:28 > 0:27:32so the axle weights became important,
0:27:32 > 0:27:36and the weight of a steam wagon compared with a petrol wagon,
0:27:36 > 0:27:40made it uneconomical to carry on with the steam wagon.
0:27:40 > 0:27:45So, powerful as they were, they were slowly abandoned.
0:27:45 > 0:27:50The traction engine - the fairground engine - survived up to about 1949.
0:27:50 > 0:27:55In some cases, about 1950. And then finally, all gone.
0:27:55 > 0:28:01But for the preservationists and the restoration men, they'd have gone for ever.
0:28:01 > 0:28:09People don't realise there's nearly 4,000 steam-driven road vehicles in England. It's incredible, really.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13There's still plenty of them around today.